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BAN ON FELON FIREARM POSSESSION QUESTIONED
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 -- 10:25 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
An area attorney says Wisconsin’s law banning convicted felons from owning firearms is unconstitutional; but the prosecutor in the case disagrees.
Attorney Matthew Prior has filed a motion to dismiss the case against Merlin Tackes of Kewaskum. Tackes was charged with felony possession of a firearm last year after he was caught hunting in Clark County last fall.
Tackes was convicted of felony theft in 1983. Prior says felony theft is not considered a “violent offense” in Wisconsin, and the state has “no compelling interest” to prohibit non-violent felons from owning a gun.
Clark County District Attorney Darwin Zwieg objects to Prior’s arguments, noting even a recent Supreme Court ruling praised by gun rights supporters seems to draw a distinction between the rights of felons and non-felons.
In penning the prevailing opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller shouldn’t be taken to “cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons.”
Zwieg also notes the Heller case doesn’t explicitly embrace the right to bear arms as a “fundamental” right and that other courts have found a relationship between violent crimes and felons possessing firearms.
A review of the motion is set for May 16th in front of Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jon Counsell.
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